National Museums Liverpool Blog - Wednesday, June 08, 2011

Next year to mark the 100th anniversary of RMS Titanic’s sinking, Merseyside Maritime Museum will host a special exhibition exploring the ship through the lives of the Liverpool people at the heart of her tragic story. Titanic and Liverpool: the untold story will open in March 2012.

The exhibition will feature a lot of previously unseen material from our archives. Curator of maritime history Ian Murphy would also like to hear from you if you have any local stories about the Titanic to add;

"Liverpool people and businesses helped to shape the fortune and fate of Titanic. Does someone in your family have a Liverpool link to the world’s most famous ocean liner? Merseyside Maritime Museum would like to hear from anyone with more information on some of the local people who played a part in Titanic’s story. Please send us your Titanic story using this contact form."

Egyptologist Glenn Janes made his final visit to the museum stores last week after cataloguing about 800 shabti funerary figures. He will be working with all the information he has gathered over the summer and then we'll meet again to discuss publishing parts of the collection. The shabti in this photograph is a close-up of a shabti for a man called Horwedja, a priest of the goddess Neith. He wears a lappet wig and a beard. In his crossed hands he holds agricultural tools: an adze, a hoe and the string of the seed-basket that hangs over the shoulder. If Horwedja was called upon to do work in the afterlife this shabti would have came to life and done the work for him. Horwedja died in about 380-343 BC and was buried in a tomb at a place called Hawara. His name is written in hieroglyphs on the first row of text. You can see 46 shabtis in the Ancient Egypt gallery at World Musuem and you can find out more about shabti figures on Glenn Jane’s website.

I think this story illustrates how timing and quick-thinking can create major shifts in events. 

In wartime things move very quickly and often with momentous consequences. I have often wondered what would have happened if war leaders had made different decisions. So often the individual plays a key part in the drama.

 

The controversial sinking of a British liner just hours after start of the Second World War and the foundering of a German U-boat submarine are strangely linked.

 

Secrets revealed by a machine captured before the U-boat sank resulted in remarkable discoveries that boosted British intelligence and helped win the war.

 

One man was a key player in both these incidents.

 

The passenger liner Athenia was sunk on 3 September 1939 only eight hours after Britain declared war on Germany. Ninety-three passengers and 19 crew died.

 

The U-30 attacked the unarmed passenger ship without warning, contrary to both international law and the strict instructions of U-boat command.

 

The commander – Kapitanleutnant Fritz-Julius Lemp - had wrongly assumed he was attacking an armed auxiliary cruiser. His death less than two years later coincided with a great breakthrough in the Allied war effort – the breaking of the Enigma codes.

 

It was Royal Navy escort ships that captured the machine, achieving a crucial victory in the Battle of the Atlantic.

 

The skilful attack off Greenland on 8 May 1941 cost Lemp his life and the destruction of submarine U-110. The rush to escape the sinking craft allowed a boarding party from HMS Bulldog to capture her code books and Enigma encoding machine.

 

This gave British code breakers at Bletchley Park their first chance to break the complicated U-boat codes. The Royal Navy gained vital information regarding U-boat positions and tactics by using the U-110 Enigma machine to read German naval messages,

 

Lemp initially left the submarine with the rest of the crew after setting scuttling charges.  One account says he swam back when he realised the charges were not exploding.

 

He may have drowned or been shot by the boarding party. The official British explanation is that he drowned himself after realising his failure. Perhaps he realised too late that he should have thrown the Enigma machine and code books overboard before leaving.

 

There are displays at Merseyside Maritime Museum about the Athenia and the U-110. An oil painting by K W Radcliffe shows the submarine’s dramatic capture.

 

Commander Roger Winn is pictured  - he and his staff used information gleaned by code breakers at the Admiralty’s Submarine Tracking Room in London.

 

A WREN (Women’s Royal Naval Service) wireless telegraphist is seen in training (pictured).

 

A new Maritime Tale by Stephen Guy appears every Saturday in the Liverpool Echo. A paperback – Mersey Maritime Tales (£3.99) – is available from the museum, newsagents and bookshops.

As part of the Look11 photography festival there has just been a big weekend of Magnum events at the International Slavery Museum. The Magnum Professional Practice course attracted photographers from across the country for two intense days of inspiring talks.

Magnum photographer Ian Berry, whose Living Apart exhibition is currently at the museum, arrived early on Friday evening for a free 'in conversation' event with National Museums Liverpool's director of art galleries Reyahn King. It was a fascinating discussion, as Reyahn describes here:

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The Living Apart exhibition of Ian's photos of South Africa really moves me. My parents were in the African National Congress and I grew up with South Africans in exile in and out of our home. I felt like I knew the place because I knew the people and it's the people – not the beautiful scenery or the famous animals – but the real heart of the country, its people, that Ian's images capture. There's a pavement dance (shown here) which captures the ability to find joy and express it in art in the hardest of circumstances. There's the dignity of a boy whose house has been burnt down in Lesotho. The determination of those burning their passes, demonstrating at funerals, stocially getting on with their lives. It's as if Ian's camera has a heart of its own that documents the moment of subtle tension or even outright violence but does so always with compassion. Ian calls this honest observation, rather than political mission, and in all the images shown you can see his integrity as a photographer.

On Friday night Ian came up for an 'In conversation' event. His description of photographing as people fell down in the grass beside him, shot in the back by the South African police at Sharpeville created a horrified, transfixed hush in the 60 or so of us listening. Ian himself was matter of fact, telling us how glad he was that his images could be used as proof that people were innocent victims in the following trial of – not the police – but those shot at! I said that it seemed like a brave thing to do – not to run away, but just to lie down in the grass and take photos. Ian was dismissive – just being professional, doing a job.

There were some great questions from the audience too. Remember Liverpool was in the forefront of the anti-apartheid movement in the UK and the exhibition includes the 'Liverpool 8 Against Apartheid' banner that people of Toxteth (L8) used in their marches. Several questions from photographers about technique – why black and white for the images of South Africa? (Answer: Ian’s personal preference – he uses colour for professional assignments when required but prefers the quality of black and white). Does he use film now? (No, digital Leicas). An intriguing question asking if Ian had seen similar racial tensions on beaches in Rio de Janeiro. How would he feel if his work was presented as art? He said he didn’t have a problem with it – but he made no claims – his skill as a photographer was about capturing the moment, making it interesting, showing people in one part of the world what was going on in another part of the world. Ian commented too that there was decreasing call for a photographer like himself. The appetite for documentary photography of world events and places is being replaced by celebrity. What a shame. 

Here's Caitlin Allan, one of our most recent volunteers, talking about her work experience in the Decorative Arts Department...

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My name is Caitlin and I have had my work experience at National Museums Liverpool for two weeks. In the first week I visited the Lady Lever Art Gallery for the first time. I was shown around the gallery and learned a lot about the story of the gallery and its collections. I was then asked to choose three pieces from the gallery that really caught my eye and to do some research on them and write up my findings.

I assisted in buying a few modern accessories for an upcoming exhibition ‘The Finishing Touch’, which were to be used in the dressing up section of the exhibition. When I saw them displayed in the exhibition I felt very proud that I was involved in choosing them.

In the second week I photographed accessories related to the forthcoming 'Costume Drama' exhibition due to open at Sudley House in July. I thought this was really enjoyable because photography is one of my favourite hobbies and also gave me more experience in handling clothing. 

I have thoroughly enjoyed the past few weeks and my view of art galleries have changed dramatically. I never knew how interesting they could be! I feel very privileged that I was allowed to have a really interesting placement for my work experience.

Last night Mike Stubbs, director of FACT, announced Marcus Soukup as the winner of the Liverpool Art Prize. The video and sound artist was chosen from a shortlist of four by a panel of judges drawn from across the city’s arts scene.

As well as winning a £2,000 prize Soukup will also display his work at the Walker Art Gallery next year. Curator of British art at the Walker Art Gallery, Dr Laura MacCulloch will be collaborating with him on his display, she said 'I am thrilled that I will be working with Markus over the next few months to organise the first display of his work at the Walker Art Gallery.'

April 1912 is the date most people usually associate with Titanic; whether it's her leaving Belfast on 2 April, the start of her maiden voyage on 10 April, or her sinking on 15 April.

However, 31 May 1911 is also an important day on the Titanic calendar as it was the day on which the ship was launched. One hundred years ago today she slipped down the greased no. 3 slipway into Belfast waters, before being moved into dry dock for fitting-out.

It must have been a momentous day for everyone associated with the shipyard. Tickets were distributed for the 12.15pm event and a grandstand was erected for spectators. The spectacle was witnessed by over 100,000 people which must have been a sight in itself.

Regular visitors and readers will know that Merseyside Maritime Museum has an excellent Titanic gallery, with a special centenary exhibition, Titanic and Liverpool: the untold story, to follow in March next year. What you might not know is that our resident Titanic expert, Dr Alan Scarth (who actually retired last week - congratulations, Alan) has written a book, Titanic and Liverpool, that explores the stories that link the city and the ship. It's a fascinating read with some excellent photos, and is available from our online shop and our venue shops.

It's been an exciting time for us here at National Museums Liverpool as we have been happily weighed down with yet another award!

The John Moores Painting Prize has beaten the rest in its field to be named Merseyside's Tourism Event of the Year. The John Moores 2010 exhibition, which ran at the Walker Art Gallery from September to January, was the most successful ever in terms of visitor numbers.

Last Thursday the exhibition scooped the top prize at the Mersey Partnership Tourism Awards at the BT Convention Centre. It beat strong competition from the Grand National Festival, Mersey Ferries Manchester Ship Canal Cruise and Mersey Tunnel Tours.

National Museums Liverpool was also shortlisted for Large Visitor Attraction (Merseyside Maritime Museum), Business Tourism (Merseyside Maritime Museum), Retail (World Museum shop) and Excellence in Customer Service (Cliff Bowden, Lady Lever Art Gallery).

As the official Tourist Board for the Liverpool City Region, The Mersey Partnership (TMP) organises the Tourism Awards to recognise and reward excellence across the Visitor Economy sector.

The Awards Ceremony has become an annual showcase for the best of the City Region's destination offer. The John Moores will now join ten other category winners to represent the region at the Enjoy England Awards for Excellence. Good luck to Angela Samata (pictured), who is the John Moores Project Manager.

It's been a good week in the Antiquities department at World Museum. An amazing object in our Egyptology collection that has long been overlooked was published by Dr Aidan Dodson of Bristol University, a Liverpool graduate who is working in the department to study and publish our coffin collection. The mask, with its tiny gold face, is a real rarity for academics and a curious object for the 10s of 1000s of visitors that see it each month. The mask was placed over the head of a mummy over 3500 years ago and is decorated with divine figures to protect the mummy. You can find out more about this mask on the World Museum Ancient Egypt Facebook page.

 

Developing our collections is a major part of a curators work and getting our collections published so that they can be appreciated by a wider audience is really important. We also have another specialist working with our Egyptology collections at the moment – Glenn Janes is studying shabti collections in the UK. Shabtis are funerary figurines that would work for the tomb owner in the afterlife. We have over 800 of them and so Glenn has been spending quite a lot of time in Liverpool. People like Aidan and Glenn give their free time to work with curators to help develop our collections as do volunteers in the early stages of their careers.  Two new volunteers have started working with the Egyptology and Mesopotamian collections. Dafydd Rees is a museum studies placement student from Liverpool Hope University and will be cataloguing our cuneiform collections from Mesopotamia. Mathew Exley is a recent Liverpool University MA Egyptology graduate who is helping with the digitisation of our Egyptology collections.  

 

We had a visit this week from Dr Adela Oppenheim a curator in the Department of Egyptian Art at the Metropolitan Museum, New York. Adela researches the archaeology of Egypt’s Middle Kingdom (2055-1650 BC) and came to look at artefacts we have from this period. We are planning to refurbish our Ancient World gallery and on Thursday we showed John Orna-Ornstein of the British Museum around our galleries. John is head of London and National Programmes and we discussed various ways we could work in partnership with the British Museum as part of our plans to create new galleries for our antiquities collections.

 

For the past 2 years antiquities staff and the World Museum registrar have been working with our Near East collections purchased from Professor John Garstang in 1949. Many have not been on display since World War Two and today an exhibition opens at the Victoria Gallery and Museum at Liverpool University that features 63 artefacts, mainly from Turkey and Syria. The exhibition is called John Garstang and the Discovery of the Hittite World and features objects loaned from World Museum, our nearby neighbour http://www.liv.ac.uk/sace/garstang-museum/index.htmand the British Museum.

Sharon Brown, Curator of Land Transport for National Museums Liverpool, pays tribute to Liverpool carter Jimmy Doran.

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Jimmy Doran (27th February, 1931 – 24th May, 2011)

I first met Jimmy Doran at precisely 11am on 20th January 1999. He had telephoned me a few days earlier with the ominous line “I’ve got something I want to talk to you about.”

This ‘something’ turned out to be the history of the Liverpool Carter and their horses. Jimmy and his friends, all former Carters, wanted to put up a monument to the Liverpool Working Horse in the city centre and had started a fundraising campaign. From that first meeting I was hooked – on the project, but also on the Carters (ask anyone in my office!)

Little did we know back then that this dream would take 11 years and a lot of hard work and heartache to achieve – and many, many meetings. I interviewed all the Carters about their working lives and, from 2006 when we became a Registered Charity, we met monthly at the museum. They were the best meetings ever - I never failed to learn something new and always had a great laugh. The Carters knowledge of Liverpool was second to none, they knew everyone and had many hilarious tales to tell.

Jimmy especially kept me entertained with his stories about various jobs, horses, fallings out, arguments and friendships, and all the stuff that a happy working life are made up of. Jimmy lived his early life above the stables in Mould Street (there were four stables on this one street), he was in and out of the stables helping out with the horses while his parents were at work. He called the stables ‘his saviour’ as they kept him occupied and out of trouble. His first job was as a smithy lad, near Love Lane, were he spent six months walking the horses that had been shod back down to the carters on the docks. His first job as a ’pony lad’ was at John Taylor’s where he says he learned his trade.

Jimmy went on to work for many local firms and then moved onto steamers, driving a Sentinel Steam Tractor, then onto wagons but nothing was ever the same after the horses.
When asked if he had a favourite horse this is was his response: “There was only Jimmy. He was a really good horse, a toughie you know I really liked him.  I worked with him for four years, I cried when I left him.”

Jimmy worked tirelessly to get the monument up, he organised Charity Nights and wrote endless letters to people he thought should help. (He was also always threatening to play the mouth organ at any events we organised. It became an in-joke with us all pretending to be horrified and trying to discourage him -  but I do regret that I never actually heard him play it!) He was always on the phone to the Echo and coming up with ideas for making more money. He was a charmer and always had a twinkle in his eye, focused on his goal, and he got there in the end.

The monument ‘Waiting’ sculpted by Judy Boyt, was proudly unveiled outside the Museum of Liverpool on 1st May 2010. It will be seen by thousands of visitors flocking to the Museum when it opens and I am sure that they, like me, will fall in love with it. It is a beautiful and touching testament to the Working Horse and the loyal Carters like my friend, Jimmy Doran. I will miss him very much.